Versailles

France’s “Sun King” Louis XIV, the protagonist of the new BBC2 show “Versailles” (whose U.S. premiere was Oct. 1 on Ovation) hasn’t always been presented in popular media quite as one might expect, for the mastermind behind the palace of Versailles. Neither a wartime king nor particularly an eventful reign, the subject of Ovation’s latest import is viewed through the lens of aesthetics: Like his life’s project, the titular palace, the fourteenth Louis is first and foremost a curiosity.